Leergemeenschappen Wijsbegeerte

Contactpersoon

Anne-Margot Lambers - a.m.lambers@rug.nl

Samenvatting

Onvoldoende actieve participatie van studenten en een gebrek aan groepsvorming, o.a. door veel individuele programma’s zijn knelpunten die faculteit signaleert. Op basis van deze analyse zet de Faculteit Wijsbegeerte met behulp van een drietal deelprojecten in op de vorming van leergemeenschappen in het hart van het academisch onderwijs aan de faculteit, namelijk in het onderwijs in filosofische vaardigheden:

1. De ontwikkeling van leergemeenschappen binnen de propedeuse van de bacheloropleiding Wijsbegeerte rond de leerlijn Filosofische Vaardigheden.

2. De ontwikkeling van leergemeenschappen binnen de bachelor- en masteropleidingen Wijsbegeerte van een bepaald wetenschapsgebied rond de leerlijn filosofische vaardigheden.

3. De ontwikkeling van leergemeenschappen binnen de Research Master Philosophy rond de leerlijn filosofische academische vaardigheden.

Best Practices

The Faculty of Philosophy is a relatively small faculty with a strong community sense. However, philosophy is -or can be- a highly individualistic field, with a strong focus on individual reading, writing and reasoning.

In our Learning Communities for the first year of the Ba Philosophy, we aim to practice these and other philosophical skills in fixed groups of 15 to 20 students. During weekly philosophy 'practicals', students work on texts and assignments belonging to the courses of that term. Each group is tutored by a fixed practical teaches who helps students develop their reading, writing and argumentation skills through instruction, practice and feedback. They focus on interactive teaching. Peer review is a core activity for these practicals, teaching students to help each other improve their work. Students are assessed individually and outside the practicals, as part of the content courses. Practical teacher will therefore solely support and provide feedback, but will never grade.

The practicals provide students with a continuous and coherent academic skills programme, which is still consistent with the courses they follow throughout the year. They also encourage students to work together, to show unfinished work and to try new techniques.

Our focus for improvement lies in the integration of the content courses and the practicals, as finding sensible assignments that assess both skills and knowledge can be quite a puzzle. Another focus point is the differentiation of the materials, because the levels of the students' philosophical skills varies widely. To accommodate these different levels is a complex task, especially in group settings.